A blog wherein I scribble about various old school fantasy role-playing games (Classic D&D and AD&D, Call of Cthulhu, BRP, Elric!/Stormbringer, MERP, etc.) and a few newer ones (Mythras, Crypts & Things, 5e D&D, etc.). I also sometimes write about fantasy and science-fiction films, novels, art, and the like.

25 November 2014

There is a nice overview of the book by Ethan Gilsdorf here. It looks great, and I'm looking forward to delving into it once the holidays arrive.

On why Aristotle would've approved of playing RPGs:

In one of the most compelling chapters, “‘Others play at dice’: Friendship and Dungeons & Dragons,” Jeffery L. Nicholas offers several examples of friendships between characters and players in D&D (as well as friendships from Lord of the Rings, The Princess Bride, A Song of Ice and Fire, and his own life. “One reason Aristotle believes people need friends is that only through friendship can one exercise certain virtues that are necessary for leading a flourishing life,” he says. “Through D&D, individuals have the opportunity not only to learn about friendship, loyalty, and love, but also to develop those rare true friendships in which they live a life valuing loyalty and love.”

I think all D&Ders can speak to a similar effect that the game has had on their lives. It’s a virtuous game, one that opens our eyes to different ideas, different worldviews, different perspectives, opposing plots and quests, as well as pursuit of the common good. “Characters develop relationships that mirror the relationships we develop with other players,” says Nicholas. Had it not been for D&D, he and his gaming buddies would never have been as close. “D&D brought us together once a week, and we were able to talk about the most important things in our lives.”

06 November 2014

During
the early 1980s I was something of an Anglophile, at least with respect to
RPGs.I generally preferred White Dwarf to Dragon (these were the years during which White Dwarf was a general RPG-focused magazine), I loved the Fighting Fantasy books (they were my
‘fix’ when I couldn’t get together with my friends for a regular game), among
my favourite AD&D modules were
the ‘U’ and ‘UK’ ones, and I was a big fan of the ‘weird’ Fiend Folio (the Githyanki, the Githzerai, the art of Russ Nicholson,
etc.).

During
this time I picked up a few issues of Imagine
magazine (now long lost, alas).Unlike White Dwarf, it was
hard to get Imagine at my local
gaming shop.Those few issues
included some articles on a world called ‘Pelinore,’ which seemed cool and
unusual.I recall wondering what
the whole setting was like.

Now
that setting has been made available – for free – by Kellri, in the Collected Pellinore.Kellri has brought together, in a
single document, the Pellinore material from Imagine magazine and GameMaster Publications from 1984-85.It can be obtained here.

How
can one not love a setting in which the
clerics of the ‘Green Man’ must be inebriated in order to obtain their
divinely-provided spells?(“His clerics must become
moderately intoxicated before sleeping in order to regain their spells” [p.
20].)

05 November 2014

‘Shadow
World’ (also known as ‘Kulthea’) is a fantasy world created by Terry K. Amthor,
one of the original members of Iron Crown Enterprises. It was designed for use with the Rolemaster fantasy role-playing game in
the 1980s. (Amthor’s Middle-Earth
campaign module, The Court of Ardor,
is sort of a ‘rough draft’ of Shadow World, and is a very poor fit for
Middle-Earth, even by the rather loose standards of 1980s ICE. Severed from Middle-earth, though, Ardor is an excellent setting – easily one of my favourite of all time. But I digress…)

Amthor
recently published a novel set in Shadow World, entitled The Loremaster Legacy. The ‘Loremasters’ are a secret
organisation of mages committed to fighting the ‘Unlife,’ similar to the Istari
of Middle-earth, but without the semi-divine background. (Interestingly, an earlier version of the
Loremasters – the ‘Guild of Elements’ – exists within Ardor.)

I
used to be a huge fan of Rolemaster, and Amthor's work in particular, including
his Shadow World setting, or at least the continent of 'Jaiman' (I never really
got into the other areas). I
remember finding the mix of fantasy and science fiction intriguing decades
ago. Now I know that such ‘mixing’
was common in the early days of FRPGs, in such settings as the Wilderlands and
Blackmoor, but in the 1980s it seemed quite novel to me, as I was unfamiliar
with those settings.

Anyhow,
it's been many years since I last thought about Shadow World at any length, but
I may check this out!